Devices disclosed by patent reference 1 and patent reference 2 have a detection object area in the surroundings of a vehicle which is set up for an obstacle detecting sensor with respect to the vehicle, and perform a visual field transformation on a camera image which is acquired by capturing the detection object area according to the distance to an obstacle which is detected in the detection object area to change the size of the angle of depression of the camera image, thereby making it easy for the user to keep track of the obstacle.
A problem with the conventional technologies represented by above-mentioned patent references 1 and 2 is, however, that because the viewpoint transformation is carried out on the camera image according to the distance to the obstacle which is detected by the obstacle detecting sensor, the viewpoint transformation is carried out even though no obstacle is existing in the camera image. A further problem is that no appropriate camera image which makes it easy for the user to keep track of the obstacle can be provided only using the distance to the obstacle.
The present invention is made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle surroundings monitoring device which can provide a camera image which makes it easy for the user to keep track of an obstacle.